Running Incognito

The first week of January I started a 9 week training program for my second half marathon. Barely a couple of days into training I learned that the race was cancelled. I was disappointed.

A couple of days later a friend who lives in DC (a former coworker from Prudential ) told me she was having second thoughts about coming out to Phoenix to run the Rock and Roll half marathon. She wanted to stay in DC to experience first hand President Obama's Inaguration. Jokingly I said ' oh Vanessa, how I wish I could take your place' . When I said it, I sort of meant in both instances... I thought - it would be fun to be in DC for the inaguration and I ALSO thought it would be fun to run the race for her... I knew both ideas were unattainable. But Vanessa did not seem to think that me running in her place was too unreasonable.

I gave it some thought... I figured I could finish it. Since Mike didn't seem to have any reservations I accepted and just like that, two weeks into training ,I found myself facing 13.1 miles of concrete.

Race day came and I felt great the whole way. I did not have a clear idea of how hard I could push myself so I decided to run slow and finish strong. I relished every mile and finished at 2'05.58. Not my best time but still 1'00.02 under what I offered Vanessa. And this is how I was #23672 for the day!